Property market flourished against all odds
LOOKING back at the West Berkshire property market for 2020, it can certainly be seen as a frenetic game of two halves, albeit with a very long half-time in the spring.
Between the General Election in mid-December and Christmas, many agents saw an unusually higher uplift in activity in the property market.
Yet that pre-Christmas uplift market was nothing when compared to the bang on Monday, January 6, 2020, with the fabled ‘Boris Bounce’.
January, February and most of March were amazing months, with the pent-up demand from people wanting to move from the Brexit uncertainty of 2018/19. The pandemic hit mid-March, and the property market was put on ice for nearly three months (as was almost everyone else’s lives).
At the end of spring, the property market was one of the first sectors of the economy to be re-opened. Every economist predicted house price drops in the order of 10 per cent in the best-case scenario and 25 per cent in the worst, yet nothing could be further from the truth.
When the lockdown restrictions were lifted, those three months allowed homeowners to re-evaluate their relationships with their homes.
The true worth of an extra bedroom (for an office) became priceless, as people working from home were having to work from the dining room table. Properties with gardens and/or close to green spaces all of a sudden became even more desirable. More fuel was put on the fire of the property market with the introduction of the Stamp Duty holiday, meaning buyers could save thousands in tax if they moved before the end of March 2021. The increased demand for a new home meant those properties on the market in early summer with extra rooms and gardens were snapped up in days for ‘full’ price.
Yet the increased number of properties coming on to the market in the late summer quenched a lot of that demand and the prices being achieved became a little more reasonable and realistic.
This increased the number of properties sold (stc), so much so that, nationally, almost two thirds more homes have been sold (stc) than would be expected at this time of year.
The number of people who have moved in the last 12 months in Newbury, is as you would expect, much lower.
Over the last 10 years, on average 868 homes have changed hands per year, compared to only 336 in the last 12 months.
So, what is a Newbury property worth today? Drilling down to the four types of homes locally, some interesting numbers appear. You can see what the average property types are worth locally, and within each type, the average price now and (in brackets) 12 months ago.
Detached – £675,900 (£648,120); Semi-detached – £359,910 (£370,620); Town house/terraced – £290,380 (£298,100); Apartments/flats – £222,820 £209,030.
So, what about 2021? Well normally when the country’s GDP drops like a stone (as it did in the summer of 2020), the property market follows.
Yet as the economy went south, house prices and activity in the property market went north.
This would appear to be quite remarkable, but it is gradually becoming clear that, as far as the property market is concerned, people’s time in lockdown has been spent reflecting on what they really wanted from their home and has meant that the normal rules of the game simply do not apply... for now.